The world sees them as superheroes. However, they all have their own quirks that might make them seem a bit more real, if only people realized what was beyond the façade. Join in a series of one-shots as the Avengers are shown to be, in fact, human.

I've been working on a series of one shots regarding the Avengers. Now, just to let everyone know: I have only seen all of the movies, but I have never read the comics. So, if I make a mistake, then it's because I don't know all of their backstories in regards to the comic books.

These aren't really in any kind of order. I just want to show that each member of the team can surprise the rest of them, or maybe one or two at a time, and that they are all human in the end. (Yes, Thor is a god, just go with it!)

"So, why are we doing this again?" Bruce asked, fidgeting with his tie. He really didn't feel comfortable in this suit. Of course, it cost far more than he'd ever seen before; never mind the fact that he was not likely to ever wear it again. However, Tony had insisted on outfitting all of them for the occasion.

"We are doing this, big and green," Tony said, pulling on his own suit jacket, and letting Pepper put his handkerchief in the pocket, "because our fearless leader Fury has vetoed my idea of funding the Avengers myself. I guess he doesn't like the idea of me having any kind of power over him. So now we get to have this benefit in the hopes that some other hapless geniuses in this city have money to burn, and want to float it our way. I assume you all still like having clothes, weapons, and jets?"

"Yeah, yeah," Steve grumbled.

He had to admit, though, Tony had outfitted them perfectly. Steve himself was in a very familiar 1940s army suit. He didn't even know where Tony had gotten it. Bruce was in a suit made from some stretchy fabric that Tony had invented over the past year. It had taken a lot of experimenting, but it mean that the Other Guy didn't tear all of his clothes every time he'd transformed. Clint was in a, dare he say it, dressy version of his Avengers suit. It was clear that he was a SHIELD agent, but he still had on his favorite boots, though cleaned and polished to the point that they could have been mirrors, not covered in dirt and grime like usual. Barton had complained about it, but Tony wouldn't listen, stating that after one mission they would look the same as soon as they got some alien blood on them. Clint agreed and shut up about it.

Natasha was in a sapphire blue dress that was skin tight, one strap, and sparkly. They had all been shocked speechless by the lack of weapons on her, since she was never without three at any one time. Tony then surprised her by giving her a jewelry box, which had two hair clips, both sharpened until they were better than her knives. She had given him a rare smile as she took the knife out of her stilettos and put the clips in her hair, stating only that they were better tactically if there was a fight.

Thor was the only one that had escaped without being outfitted, as he was in his full Asgardian ceremonial robes. Tony had agreed with grace, stating that Thor, as a god, had the right to decide his own clothes, rather than have a simple mortal picking them out for him.

Tony, unsurprisingly, was in his most expensive Armani suit. Steve assumed that he had quite a few of them, though he'd seen Tony wear this one at least once before. The only thing that was slightly different than that time, was that Tony had on his homing bracelets. Steve had noticed that Tony wore them almost constantly when he was leaving the Tower for an extended period of time. He wondered idly if the suit itself was going to be in the trunk of the limo.

Pepper, of course, looked like her usual polished self. It was normal for her to go to these charity events, and she looked the part of the superhero's girlfriend mixed with CEO of a fortune five company. She quickly got on her phone, telling Happy that they were ready to be picked up at the front of the Tower.

The trip to the ballroom was done mostly in silence. Most of them were fidgeting, not used to this kind of thing. Tony and Pepper looked completely at ease, and Natasha was doing quite a good job of acting like everything was fine, but Steve noticed her clutching her purse a few times, where he would bet that she had one of her tiny guns.

It was going to be a long night.

Natasha had been keeping an eye on Tony for most of the night. There was something that was prickling in the back of her mind, which was a feeling that she hated. It wasn't the feeling that there was danger, or else she would have intervened already. No, this was something completely different.

Tony was keeping his drink filled and in his hand at all times. That was something that she was always aware of, especially after his birthday party when she was undercover with him. However, he wasn't even close to drunk. Sure, he had a high tolerance, but they'd been at the event for over two hours by now. He should be fairly far gone at this point.

He excused himself from the group he was talking to, and wandered outside, which he'd done a few times. She'd assumed that he'd been going out for fresh air (unlikely) or was having a private rendezvous with Pepper (likely for him, unlikely for her).

She stayed in the shadows, knowing that this was breaking his privacy quite a bit, and followed him. She was surprised to see that there was no one else out here, as it was a nice night, and then her eyes widened further.

Tony took a tiny sip of his drink and hummed thoughtfully at the taste, then emptied the almost full drink into the bushes, turned, and went back to the bar to get another one. Her mask slipped and showed her confusion. What on earth?

"He doesn't drink in public anymore," Pepper said next to her.

Natasha spun around, hand automatically going to her new hair-weapons, then glared at the CEO. "Impressive," she stated. No one had managed to sneak up on her in years. Clearly she was slipping a bit.

Pepper shrugged, her eyes were on Tony. "You looked confused, so I thought I would clear it up for you. He scared himself at his birthday party. Yeah, he thought he was dying at the time, but he could have seriously hurt someone there, and he realized that once things calmed down after Vanko was dead, and you'd gone back to SHIELD. He doesn't want to make it obvious that he's changed anymore than people already realize, so he just fakes it. If he ever gets drunk anymore, he does it when he's alone in his lab, and I don't find out until the next morning."

Natasha nodded, her mind whirling with the new information. It made sense, and it fit all of the evidence. Now that she was thinking about it, it should have been obvious. She'd been living with the other Avenger's in the Tower for a few months now, and had yet to see Tony get plastered again. "Why doesn't he want people to know?" she asked, still eyeing the man.

Pepper gave a small smile. "I don't really know. I have a few good guesses, but that's something I've never asked him about. Believe it or not, he really has changed," she said with a truer smile, and walked across the hall to him, joining his conversation with a young couple that looked barely out of college. Sure enough, he had another full drink in his hands.

Natasha gave a smile of her own. She wasn't proven wrong about someone very often, but this looked as though it would qualify, and she was actually happy about that fact.

So, that's the first. For some reason, Tony comes easier to me than the others, so I figured I would start with him. This scenario seemed likely, so it seemed like a good beginning to these one shots.

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